1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic head device and a recording medium drive, which are suitable for application to a mass-storage floppy disk drive or the like. Specifically, this invention relates to a magnetic head device or the like wherein first and second rails are formed on a slider, a head chip for a standard recording density is provided on the first rail, a head chip for a high recording density is provided on the second rail, and the width of the second rail is set narrower than that of the first rail, whereby low-order compatibility is provided, and the amount of levitation of the second rail is limited to improve a recording-reproducing characteristic of the head chip for the high recording density.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a floppy disk having a larger capacity of several tens of Mbytes to several hundreds of Mbytes as compared with the capacity of a conventional floppy disk has been proposed as a removable disk-shaped recording medium. In this case, an increase in the capacity of the floppy disk is achieved by the integration of various techniques such as a material used for a recording medium, a structure of a head chip, the processing of a signal for reproduction, the presence or absence of a tracking servo.
As one of the mass-storage floppy disk drive, the floppy disk drive of levitation type has been proposed, which increases the number of revolutions of a disk and performs recording/reproduction of data in such a way the magnetic head is slightly levitated from a recording surface of the disk.
The levitation-typed mass-storage floppy disk drive is one wherein the disk is rotated at a high speed and the resultant pressure based on airflow is used to levitate the magnetic head. A levitation system is a technique adopted in a hard disk drive. In practice, a slider with head chips incorporated therein is levitated.
The levitation-typed mass-storage floppy, disk drive, which has already been proposed, has a problem in that it has no compatibility or low-order compatibility with the already-existing floppy disk drive. Thus, a problem arises in that a disk drive for a mass-storage floppy disk cannot be incorporated in a personal computer under the circumstances where the current floppy disk is used.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic head device or the like having low-order compatibility and capable of improving a recording-reproducing characteristic of a head chip for a high recording density.